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Friday, February 27, 2015

Improvised Weapons: Fire Extinguisher

A fire extinguisher can make a great defensive tool. In almost all public spaces you can find a fire extinguisher and they can be kept inconspicuously in virtually any environment. Few people question the logic of having a fire extinguisher close at hand, but most people don’t think of it as a defensive tool. A fire extinguisher can be used to distract and disable an attacker, regardless of how determined they are. You can also cover a section of slick flooring with the dry chemical agent in most extinguishers to create a very slippery surface that can impede a threat’s advance and/or give you an opportunity to strike after they have fallen.
My thinking is that there may be:
• Temporary blindness from all the vapor
• Temporary asphyxiation from all the CO2
• Temporary skin damage from chemical burns
All these would be minor but may buy you a few seconds time.
If they can't see it's hard for them to fight, if they can't breathe it's hard for them to fight, and if they can't walk it's hard for them to fight.
The 5 Lb. unit by Kidde can shoot out white powder over 15 feet on a 10" Target pattern. You can carry one in your car, on a front seat or stuck next to it, it is 50 State Legal. Sometimes you have to adapt and use what you have available to you at that moment.
Once you slow down an attacker you may feel you can use the extinguisher as a blunt force object to further incapacitate them.
I’m going to keep the hose attached to the body of the fire extinguisher. Most people separate it to spray a fire, but it doesn’t have to be pulled away from the body of the extinguisher to function. Hold the grip of the extinguisher with your strong hand. Support the body of the extinguisher with your non-dominant hand, ideally placing your thumb over the hose to keep it in place. Aim the “muzzle” of the hose at the attacker and keep spraying until the extinguisher is empty. Once empty, keep the same grip and thrust the bottom of the canister into the threats face repeatedly. Hopefully this will provide enough distraction/injury.
Sometimes we are limited in the weapons we can carry. Almost every public buildings have multiple fire extinguishers. It’s probably best that we consider how to best utilize them as an option for defensive weaponry.
Besides you never know when you may need it to put out a Fire!